The Return of the Champion
by Alice J. Nightshade
Summary: It's been years since Alice left Underland, and the world is brighter, happier and peace has fallen; but in the world that's always changing, this isn't meant to last. Something dark is coming and only the Champion will be able to stop it. Now, the questions Alice needs to answer are down the rabbit hole and she'll need to use her head and her heart if she wants to survive.


**Hello, everyone. I do not know where this fan fiction is going or where it came form but I wanted to do another one of my Alice Fic's because I miss writing them. So, here you go. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. **

"To Alice Kingsleigh," Lord Ascot's deep baritone would've have cut though all the chatter of the party goers if they were some, but proper as ever, everyone had drawn silent when the party's host stood and raised his glass to the young woman who sat at his left. "Our youngest and most resourceful of apprentices. Smart, clever and imaginative. We couldn't be where we find ourselves today without her. A trading alliance with China and partners all along Asia. And to think, she was almost my daughter in law."

The dining room filled with polite laughter. It was no secret the event of Alice and Hamish's failed engagement and now he was happily married and traveling across the country on his honeymoon.

But even with a room full of smiling happy people, something inside Alice felt missing.

She'd felt that way for a long time now. Ever since she'd climbed out of the hole at her almost engagement party, the nightmares that she'd had for so long more fresh in her mind than ever before, she'd felt something was missing. Every time she saw a flash of white in the bushes or a pair of green eyes, something twinged in her heart and she had no idea why.

As the laughter died down, Lord Ascot continued. "Our greatest wishes on all your endeavors. To Alice!" With everyone's glasses raised he leaned down to her ear and whispered. "Your father, would be so proud."

Tears pricked at the back of her eyes. "Thank you, sir."

"Alice," He chuckled. "We've worked together for nearly three years, please call me Benedict." At her surprised expression he grinned, there was something familiar about that grin, she thought. "I know it is a bit improper, but I'm sure you wouldn't mind breaking a few rules, would you?"

"Umphm." Lady Ascot said, standing stiffly at her husband's side who straightened, though his eyes dazzled with amusement. "Alice, I do believe that your birthday was recently."

"Yes," Alice said cautiously.

"Well, I hope it was a happy one." Lady Ascot smiled though to Alice it seemed more like a sneer. "How old does that make you now? Twenty-two? Three?"

"Twenty one." Alice said, with somewhat disdain. "And thank you."

"Twenty one and still unmarried. A pity." She shook her head. "And you were always so lovely. If you'll excuse me, we will be moving the party outside."

With a pointed look at her husband, she left with a swish of her skirts and snapped at a nearby waiter who had stepped too close.

"She means well, I think." Lord Ascot told her though he didn't look quite so sure. "I don't think she really got over you changing Hamish's engagement party."

Alice smiled, distracted. "If my memory serves me, it was almost mine too."

Lord Ascot chuckled. "That it was. May I?"

Alice stood and took his offered arm and the pair made their way out to the gardens where the sun shone in a cloudless blue sky, and yet Alice still couldn't shake the feeling of absence in her.

"You know, Alice," Lord Ascot started, as the two stepped onto the soft grass. She had a vague sense of Deja vu being in the Ascot's garden once again. In one corner a group of musicians had started to play, she shuddered at the first few notes, a quadrille. "While we've worked together for quite some time, I don't believe I know much about your life outside our work."

"Sir?" Alice blinked as he lead her down a small winding path through the gardens. A pair of women looked over at them curiously before turning to one another with hushed whispers. The Chataway twins, wearing matching dresses of light teal. And yet, there was something familiar about the color.

"Benedict, please." He patted her arm reassuringly. "What I mean is, how are things besides the company? For instance, how is your sister, Margret? And your mother? I see they hadn't attended the celebration."

"Both send their regrets, sir- I mean, Benedict." Alice smiled, correcting herself. "But it's hard to for Margaret to move since the baby should arrive any day now and Mother had a fever and she didn't wish to impose."

"Nonsense. They must be glad to have you back, aren't they?" He asked.

"Yes," Alice said, looking up at the sky. It looks, she thought. Almost dull. Strange. "They were quite-"

She cut off as something rustled the bushes at her side. She could swear it had been a rabbit but she couldn't truly tell.

_I wonder what his name is_, she thought.

"Alice?" Lord Ascot asked, concerned as always.

"I thought I saw something." She admitted, kneeling down slightly to get a better look. "A rabbit, I think."

"Don't tell Elizabeth, then." He said with a shake of his head. "She loves nothing more to sick the dogs on them. Terrible thing if you ask me."

"Yes," She straightened up and wiped down her already perfect dress. Too perfect. "I'm sorry sir. I-"

"Alice, you have nothing to apologize for. Your father was just the same." The smile slipped from both their faces and he clasped a hand on her shoulder. "I see so much of him in you Alice. That fire, not even the illness could take it away from him. You have it too."

Alice smiled, a sad smile. "Thank you."

They were both quite for a moment as they rounded back to the party. Paper lanterns had been hung around the tree lines, a custom they'd picked up from Asia that glowed here and there.

"Alice, there's something that I've been meaning to ask you for some time now." Lord Ascot admitted and turned to face her head on. "You know that you're father had worked all his life to build this company. And when I purchased it after... well, after he'd departed, I never imagined that his daughter would be the one to help it grow so much. And that's why I believe that you're the perfect person to lead it."

The world seemed to stop. "What?"

"I need to choose a successor to the company, Alice. And what better person that you to do it? You're bright, young and you've contributed so much in the past few years, no one else would be able to do the things you can do." He broke off seeing her expression and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to say anything yet. I haven't told anyone of this but I wanted you to hear me out." He stared at her pleasingly. "Tell me you'll think about it."

"Yes sir," Alice said automatically and he didn't try to correct her again. "Um, if you'll excuse me."

Not waiting to be excused, Alice turned on her heel and started to walk quickly towards the party with stiff purposed steps.

"I hear that she's mad, just like her aunt." A low voice whispered as Alice passed by a tall hedge that made her pause, curious as always.

"I heard that they pity her." Another woman said with a soft sigh. "A woman working in a job like that. What other reason for it is there?"

"How tragic," Alice couldn't take it anymore. But as she turned away, she couldn't help but hear their hushed voices follow. "No wonder no man will marry her."

Alice pushed through the busy party without seeing anyone, and hadn't realized that tears were running down her face until she was striding through the marble halls. She wasn't upset by their words, she'd been hearing things like that since she was chosen for the apprenticeship, but she was so overwhelmed. And now she was being offered the company, when all she'd wanted to do was fulfil her father's dream.

Her father's dream, not her own.

She wiped at her face and took a deep breath as a voice from the back of her mind, like a memory, whispered. _Tears never solved anything. _

Well they seemed like as good of anything now. Alice took a deep breath and stood up straighter, stepping away from the glass, wanting nothing more than to go home. Home, where her mother stared at her with tired eyes and her sister's sympathetic smiles when she visited.

For so many months she thought when she'd come back to London, the feeling of loneliness would disappear but now she felt more alone than ever.

_Why was it_, she thought. _That I feel more alone when I'm home then I did when I was so far away?_ _It didn't make any sense. Nothing made any sense_, she concluded, turning down a hallway deeper into the house. So many things were wrong when they should have been right.

Alice was home and she felt lonelier than she ever had.

She was being given a company, but she wanted more. Something more.

And something was still missing. Like the last piece of a puzzle that would make everything right.

Maybe, if she'd been paying attention, which admittedly she didn't do a lot of, Alice would've noticed that she'd walked farther down the hall then she thought, and made a turn she didn't realize that lead not to a hallway, but to a staircase.

But, she wasn't. So, instead when her foot hit midair and Alice pitched forward and fell straight down until her world went black.

**Tell me what you think! Did you like it? Did you hate it? Any ideas on what to do next? Reviews are appreciated. **


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